Backblaze - A Better (?) Online Backup System

I am a strong believer in the need for keeping multiple backups of all important files and storing those backups in multiple places. At a minimum, you should be keeping the original file(s) on your computer, a backup of each important file in a location that is close and convenient to your computer, and still another backup that is stored "off-site." In this case, "off-site" might be at your place of work, at a relative's home, in a safe deposit box, or on a server out on the Internet.

In the past few years, a number of online services have appeared that provide automated backup services. You install the software, do a bit of configuration, and then sit back and let your computer make frequent backups automatically.

These online backup services used to be very expensive, but prices started dropping two or three years ago. Today you can obtain FREE backups for up to two gigabytes of files and even unlimited space for the ridiculously low price of $4.95 a month. That's cheaper than purchasing an external disk drive for backup purposes and provides the extra advantage of storing your files “off site.”

I have been a big fan of Mozy, a popular online backup service. However, I have recently been experimenting with a different online backup service that was launched a few weeks ago. I must say that I am impressed with Backblaze.

Mozy and Backblaze are very similar services, and you won't go wrong with either one. However, Backblaze has a few more options than Mozy and is also slightly cheaper if you pay a year in advance. I am switching to Backblaze for my backups.

Both services provide automatic backups several times per day, assuming that your computer is powered up and is connected to the Internet. The first backup may require several days or even a week or more to complete, depending upon how much data you have and the speed of your Internet connection. Most home broadband systems will send two to four gigabytes per day. Don't even think about backing up on a dial-up connection!

Once the first backup is completed, all future "incremental backups" will complete within a minute or two as the only items backed up are any new files or newly-updated files. The files that have been backed up previously remain on the company's servers, so there is no need to send them again. These new "incremental backups" are usually quite small and therefore complete quickly, typically within a minute or two.

Both services encrypt your files first, using an encryption key that you create, before sending the files across the Internet to the company's servers. The files are still fully encrypted when stored on the company's servers. Nobody can decrypt and look at your files unless you give that person the encryption key. Not even the company's employees can see your files. To retrieve your files, you must supply the encryption key. Of course, if you ever forget the encryption key, your files cannot be restored and decrypted.

I should also point out that neither service really backs up ALL files. Both of these services are designed to back up your critical data files, not the boot record, Windows pagefile, system files, applications, and unnecessary files such as the contents of your trash can. In case of a critical system failure, such as a hard disk crash, the assumption is that you will first fix the hardware, then reload the operating system and applications from the original distribution CD disks. Finally, you will turn to the online backup systems to restore your data files.

Backblaze has several features that I did not find on Mozy:

File Retrieval

You can retrieve your files from most anyplace. All you need to do is open a web browser on any computer, specify the files you want to retrieve, and enter your personal encryption key. The selected files will then be made available in a compressed ZIP file. This is a great service when you are traveling and find that you left a needed file on the computer back home.

Retrieval Media

Both Mozy and Backblaze will allow you to retrieve files across the Internet. Of course, if you need thousands of files, it may require hours or even days to transfer all of them, depending upon the speed of your Internet connection. Transferring 100 gigabytes of data across a residential DSL line might require a week or more.

Both Mozy and Backblaze offer a second option: the companies will copy your files to CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disks and send them to you by overnight express. Naturally, there is a charge for this special service, and you also have to pay the freight charges.

Backblaze offers a third option that I have not seen on Mozy. The company will copy the files you specify to an external hard drive with a USB connection and then ship that drive to you via overnight freight, again for a charge. In effect, you are purchasing the new hard drive from Backblaze, and the company loads your data onto it before shipping. The advantage of this process is that it is faster and easier than CD or DVD disks, and you end up with an external hard drive that you can continue to use on a daily basis.

Jump Drives

A limitation of Mozy is that it will only back up hard drives that show as “fixed drives” in the operating system. Backblaze will do that but will also back up jump drives. (I plug my jump drive into my computer once a week so that Backblaze will make backups of the data stored on that drive.)

Commercial Use

Mozy's licensing restricts the MozyHome product to noncommercial use. Backblaze has no such restrictions.

Mozy does have one major advantage over Backblaze: the company allows private users to store up to two gigabytes of data free of charge. That will be sufficient space from many people. However, if you have a lot of pictures, multimedia files, or other large files to back up, you may find yourself quickly exceeding the two-gigabyte limit.

Depending on your personal needs and preferences, either service is a great way to ensure that your important files – genealogy and otherwise – are safe from destruction. Both also offer free trials, so you have nothing to lose and much to gain by taking either for a test drive. To take advantage of Backblaze, go to www.backblaze.com. For Mozy, visit www.mozy.com.

Comments

[bobby]

www.adrive.com for 50 gigs.

You can upload folders.

And its free.

Its what i use.

[Dae Powell]

Backblaze sounds perfect. I may switch from Mozy, too. Thanks for the tip and detailed descriptions.

Happy Dae·
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com

[Robin Hoff Kaspar]

How timely this is. I am making my first full backup to Backblaze as I write this. Be aware that the default "speed" of the backup is somewhere in the middle of "fast network" and "fast backup." I didn't know that at first and so after 24 hours, only about 1800 of 47,000 files had uploaded (and I'm on Verizon Fios). At that rate, I'd be looking at a month or more before the initial backup is completed. So before I went to bed last night, I cranked up the speed, turned it down just now so that my husband and I can do whatever it is we do on our computers in the morning (catch up on blog posts mostly) and before I leave for work, I'll crank it up again.

My husband is using Carbonite for his backup to the cloud. It has been highly regarded on the tech podcasts we listen to.

[Edward Comer]

Thank you Bobby for the tip about www.adrive.com. I signed up for an account. 50GB for free! The most important feature for me is that adrive supports Linux. In fact, they support any OS that can run java since the backup tool is java running within your browser. Plus, it directly supports zoho which makes remote word processing a breeze. It also supports a public share folder for file sharing. The negative is that with the free version you must manually kick off a backup. Namely, timed backups in the middle of the night aren't supported. Fortunately, there is no limit on the speed - it will go as fast as your connection supports. I guess if no timed backups is too much of a problem I could simply pay the $6.95 monthly for the signature plan.

[Kristina]

Wow! That was easy, with Backblaze i didnt have to tell it what files or anything, just register and it scans your computer and does the backup automatically. Great for us that are computer illiterate!!!
I tried adrive first, but you have to select the files and it limits the the number of files and size, so it kept telling me to decrease the number of files or the size of the files, i got frustrated and tried to upgrade to FTP my files but couldnt figure that out. So then i tried Backblaze and voila, it is backing up all my files.
Thanks

[Lesley M. Gomez]

Computer challenged people need "easy" and Blackblaze couldn't have been easier. Thanks so much!!

[Richard]

I have an iMac and am currently backing up to TimeMachine. I wonder if Backblaze will automatically back up that external drive besides my hard drive? If so, that would be overkill.

[Dick Eastman]

Yes, Backblaze will back up external drives, including USB drives, jump drives, and more. I use Backblaze on my Mac desktop and laptop systems to back up a 32-gigabyte jump drive that I normally carry in my pocket. I do have to remember to plug in the jump drive occasionally and leave it connected for an hour or two until Backblaze backs it up.

Backblaze will back up any drive that plugs into a USB connection. I believe that Mozy does not. Mozy only backs up a computer's internal drive(s).

- Dick Eastman

[Elaine]

Mozy will back up external hard drives, but not flash drives, jump drives, etc. I'm currently using Mozy to back up files on both my internal and external hard drives. I'm seriously considering adding Backblaze since it will back up flash drives as well. I'd also like the extra security of having more than one off site back up.

[Tim Stringer]

I was initially planning to go with Mozy, but found the Mac software crashed frequently (specifically the Restore feature) and had some quirks. I contacted tech support, who weren't much help. After a couple of weeks and numerous e-mails back and forth I was no closer to a solution than when I first contacted them. I imagine that Mozy offer a technically competent solution overall...but when it comes to choosing a backup solution it has to be offered by a company that offers excellent support.

I then discovered Backblaze which felt like a breath of fresh air in comparison. The Mac software is clean and well though-out and the restores I tried worked seamlessly. I am now a paid and happy customer of Backblaze.

[Holly Hendricks]

I have a client using Mac OSX version 10.4.11. I don't know Mac, and Backblaze IT tells her it won't work with that system. What would work for her that's similar?

I love Backblaze, by the way. Thanks for telling us about it.

Holly

[Richard]

I believe Backblaze will only work on Intel Macs not on Power PC Macs, so your client has to upgrade her hardware. The operating system is not the problem.

[Maurice Volaski]

What's the story regarding between 2 and 4 GB a day? That's between 23 and 46K a second, just a fraction of typical upload bandwidth, which is 250K per second.

Why would the service have an option to intentionally handicap itself to the point of being unusable? (Since backup is an upload process, I don't think it should affect a user's ability to use the Internet, which mainly consists of downloading.)

[Maurice Volaski]

I did some investigating and maxing the upload bandwitdh does significantly slow down the download rate. However, even with both maxed, I was still able to surf the web at a reasonable pace. So unless the user needs his or her system to do some heavy-duty Internet surfing, the throttle seems to be mostly counterproductive.

[Sabrina]

I tried Carbonite first, but was disappointed with the service. While my computer showed more files were already backed up, I logged on the site and there weren't half as many files backed up. I stumbled upon Backblaze, download it and had both Carbonite and Backblaze going at the same time. Backblaze was more up-to-date with the files that were backed up and so, I went with it. I uninstalled Carbonite and have been happy with Backblaze ever since. I downloaded it about 2 months ago. The backup is taking a while, but I have a laptop and don't always have it running. I have no problems. I restored a few files, just to see how it worked, and it worked just fine. I'm very happy with it. Carbonite and Mozy seem to be the popular companies, but sometimes the biggest is not always the best. :)

[Dan]

You're wrong about Mozy not offering file retrieval via their web site. Just go to the Mozy Account Home page, click Restore Files, and then Web Restore. You can select a set of folders and/or files, which are turned into a set of zip files you can download. I did it the other day to transfer a bunch of files from my home computer to another computer and it worked great.

[Sherry]

I am going to try Backblaze right now. I had Mozy at one time and unfortunately, because I am a computer illiterate, I lost all of my genealogy program databases.
When my laptop had to be repaired because of a bad monitor the manufacturer returned it with my whole hard drive erased. I sat here, fat - dumb - and happy, thinking I was safe because Mozy was backing up ALL of my files. I went to my Mozy account and did a web restore. It took me awhile but I did it in increments so I could keep track and do some reorganizing at the same time. All my photos (30+ GB) and all of my documents came back just fine.
When I opened up my genealogy programs - shucks! Nothing there! Their explanation was that because Mozy did not recognize the file extensions it did not back them up. (All of my database information was ignored while regular document and picture files were backed up just fine. Both file types were stored in the same directory.) I was told later that such files must be specifically noted (somewhere - somehhow) in order for Mozy to know which files are not garbage. Their "support" folks acted as though I should have known that. Silly ole me...
Fortunately I had some older files on an old desktop so I was able to copy them to the laptop and I only lost 2 years of research. Now I copy to flash drives, and external drive, and the old computer. Once can never have too many backups. My photos and genealogy are my life! Backblaze, here I come!

[Rohit.K]

It is my experience that what is FREE doesn't last long. I am using Data Deposit Box (www.datadepositbox.com). Simple pricing model, $2/GB. Company has a good track record and restores are on-the-fly.

I backup because I want it back. I have no faith in FREE backup plans.